FA Cup Sunday Update
S0…it has happened again…and this time to one of English football’s elite clubs, Arsenal.
Nottingham Forrest 4 -Arsenal 2
This is a stunner of a result. The very first time Arsenal has been eliminated this early in the competition under current manager Arsene Wenger, who has coached them the past 21 years. As well, Arsenal are the record holders with 13 FA Cup titles in their history. They are FA Cup royalty. Wenger has been under pressure the past few years as Arsenal have won very few trophies and he has considered stepping down…this might be a little nudge for the club to reconsider his future.
Arsenal currently sitting in 6th position in the Premier League while Nottingham Forest are in 13th place in the Championship division, one level down. That’s a difference of 27 positions in class. I mentioned there are always some surprises and yesterday with Stoke City losing it was a big upset. This one will rock the soccer world. The lower level teams always come into a match with a premier league team hungry and play with a little extra energy, but usually, the quality of the Premier League team eventually wears them down and even if close, the Premier league team generally gets the win. Not today! Not only did they win, but by all accounts, they were the better team, scored 4 goals and did not win on a fluke or strange call, they deserved the win. Wow.
A side note for the American football fan is that Eric Lichaj scored two goals in the game and is also a member of the US Mens National Team and may feature more on the team in the future. Way to go Yankee! Show those English boys a thing or two.
FA Cup Update
So it has happened already. The FA Cup is known for its big upsets. It is a very cool competition with teams from every league in English soccer eligible. You end up getting some interesting matches. Today was a great example.
Stoke City vs. Coventry City.
Stoke City is in the Premier League, the top-level of English soccer. They are struggling this year and are currently in 18th position and if the league ended today, Stoke City would get relegated down to the Championship level. Coventry City are currently 3rd in the League 2, the 4th level of English soccer. If things stand they would get promoted to league 1 next year.
There are 116 teams in the Top 5 levels of English soccer and this is a game of the teams ranked 18 (Stoke City) vs. the team ranked 71 (Coventry City). Seems like a pretty easy win. Not so fast my friend. Coventry City eased past Stoke City with a 2-1 win today in Round 3 of the FA Cup. The first Premier League team to lose to a lower lever squad so far this year.
Transfer Window News
Philippe Coutinho has been sold from Liverpool to Barcelona for $192M. Wow. This is a big move for Coutinho as Barcelona tries to recover from the loss this year of Neymar to PSG. Barcelona is one of the top 3-4 clubs in the world and needed to make a big move based on recent results to keep their position. Messi is getting older, they lost Neymar…so this move was critical for their future. Not sure how Liverpool replaces the lost goals. Should be interesting.